“I Forgive You” Part 3

S3 Speculation:

The number 3 is important in Christianity and in storytelling. In Christianity it represents completeness and perfection; in storytelling it suggests that groups of three are more satisfying to the audience in various ways.

Crowley asked Aziraphale to run off with him three times. Twice in season 1, and once in season 2. Crowley has exhausted this set of 3 and will not ask again in season 3.

Aziraphale has twice asked for divine forgiveness on Crowley’s behalf. In Season 1 at the bandstand after he blasphemed the great plan, and in season 2 when he said he longed to kill Job’s children. I suspect we will get a third but likely one that’s in a flashback. I mention this only to separate divine forgiveness from Aziraphale’s forgiveness, which is what I actually want to talk about.

Twice, after being insulted by Crowley, Aziraphale said, “I Forgive You.” In Season 1 outside the bookshop, “How can someone so clever be so stupid?” and I don’t have to describe the second time, it lives rent-free in our heads. I don’t want to discuss the possible deeper meanings of that line in season 2 because it’s too big for this post, and others have already made excellent points on it. But I am positive we will get a third “I forgive you” in season 3 and I'm positive it WON'T be directed at Crowley.

I believe that as Supreme Archangel, that forgiveness could be given in some official capacity; perhaps towards an adversary, a "sinner", or even personally towards the Almighty given the right circumstances. But my strongest suspicion is that we will see Aziraphale say “I forgive you” to himself.

I suspect that he will have specific personal growth that will lead to some form of self-actualization. I think he will articulate his own feelings of inadequacy, or come to recognize previous actions or lines of thinking which he regrets, and be very hard on himself until he comes to a point that he is able to acknowledge it in a healthy way and move past it. In that instant I think we will get our third, complete and perfect “I forgive you.”

The meaning of "I forgive you"

Alright, hello again, I involuntarily dipped for a bit because real life outside of this lovely Tumblr Good Omens bubble got a little bit stressful, but! I'm back for a quick little post to say that I'm currently reading the script book for Season 1 and seeing this line again, spelled out on paper, just shone some more light on the whole „I forgive you“-scene of Season 2 for me again.

Because really, this first time Az says it to Crowley in front of the bookshop tells us exactly what the second time during the Final Fifteen means.

Aziraphale is not forgiving Crowley for kissing him. Or for using this moment to confess and make things explicit between them.

No, Aziraphale is forgiving Crowley for not trusting and believing (in) him.

Let's shove the Final Fifteen to the side for a second and look at this scene from Season 1 under the cut.

Aziraphale and Forgiveness, Pt. 2: The Source of Salvation

Part 1 here!

(This post ended up being way longer than I intended, oopsie! And no fun GIFs to break it up this time. Hope you like reading lots of words!)

So why would Aziraphale, an angel who has not fallen despite bending/breaking the rules many times, have so much emotional baggage around the topic of forgiveness?

Some disclaimers:

Disclaimer 1: I've seen enough of tumblr already to know that "does Aziraphale really have religious trauma?/how much does it motivate his actions?" is the subject of Discourse around these parts. I don't want to have that argument here. Aziraphale's experience with Heaven has strong parallels to my personal religious history, and those specific parallels are what I'm here to talk about.

Disclaimer 2: I am not a bible scholar or religious historian, if I mention specific church doctrines or bible verses it's only to illustrate the experience of growing up in my church. My actual biblical/theological accuracy may be sloppy.

Disclaimer 3: I haven't read Good Omens the book. I know there are differences, but I'm not addressing them. All my thoughts are about show!Aziraphale and show!Heaven only.

Okay. Here goes.

Aziraphale and Forgiveness, Pt 1: Not Just A Word

There are a lot of aspects to Aziraphale’s character that, when I first watched the show, I vibed with immediately without really thinking too hard about why. He just made deep emotional sense to me as a character. It wasn’t until I waded into the fandom that I realized how much metaphorical ink was being spilled over the question “Why does Aziraphale do the things he does?”

I would always think, “Well, that’s obvious, isn’t it?” but then find that I didn’t really have the words to explain why I thought it was obvious. It was just this ongoing feeling of “Well sure, that’s exactly the kind of thing I did/would have done as a born-and-raised evangelical teenager.” But then I would try to articulate the actual reasons younger-me would have had for doing the thing (and by extension, what I assumed Aziraphale’s reasons were) and immediately fumble because I hadn’t thought it through that far.

Neil Gaiman: Crowley has not yet learned that just because you think of yourself as unforgivable it doesn’t mean that you cannot be forgiven. Or, indeed, that you need forgiveness. (x)

Bonus: